Sacramento State’s women’s soccer team strengthened its position in the race for a conference tournament berth on Friday with a 2-1 overtime victory over Big Sky newcomer Northern Colorado.

The game strayed away from other recent matches as it was the Hornets (9-5-2, 3-1-1) coming out and taking the early lead. Just four minutes into the game senior Maggie Murphy sent in a spinning corner kick to the right side of the box. Sophomore midfielder Sarah Howard placed her head on it and deposited the ball in the back of the net.

“We practiced that play all day (Thursday) at practice,” Murphy said. “I was finding her consistently in practice so I was looking for her on that play.”

“We knew we had a good chance to score because Maggie was playing the ball right to me all day at practice,” Howard said.

The game seemed to be already out of hand for the visiting Bears (4-10-0, 1-4-0), but they were resilient, eventually tying the game at a goal apiece 15 minutes later. Northern Colorado forward Marika Johnson lofted a shot past Hornets goalie Jenny Lawrence to tie the game. The score remained 1-1 at halftime.

In the second half, as has been the case for the Hornets as of late, the team came out aggressive, taking the ball hard at the Bears defense. Sac State held a modest 10-6 shot advantage at halftime, but exploded to a 10-2 margin in the second half.

The shots came for Sac State, but no goals. Kayelyn Satkowski put an end to that with 4:13 remaining in the first overtime period. The golden goal, Satkowski’s ninth, set off a frantic celebration in front of the opposing goal.

“Katie (Rorabaugh) and I made eye contact and she played a beautiful ball to me,” Satkowski said of the game-winner.

“I thought we played well in the second half,” head coach Katie Poynter said. “We forgot that we needed to play a full 90 minutes again, but we proved that we can close out games.”

For the second straight game it was a goalie that set the tone for the opposition. After Eastern Washington’s Tiera Como made life difficult for the Hornets on Sunday it was Chrissy Martin’s turn on Friday. The five-foot-eleven Marvin made several impressive saves that possibly kept the game from getting out of control for the Bears. She finished with nine saves in the game.

“She is a good keeper,” Satkowski said. “She played really well today.”

The game marked the final regular season match for seniors Murphy, Kelly Novak and Natalia Romo.

“It’s sad because it’s my last game, but this is the best team I’ve been a part of here,” Murphy said.

“It’s pretty emotional,” Romo said. “This has been such a big part of my life for the last four and a half years.”

Novak tried not to think about the sadness of the moment.

“I was just focusing on not being sick,” said Novak of her bout with the flu. “Words can’t explain how I feel about this being my last game.”

The Hornets can ensure at least one more game at home if they can win the regular season title in the Big Sky. Sac State (3-1-1) trails only Idaho State (4-1-0) in the race for home field.

Satkowski’s goal tied her for fifth in program history in goals in a single season (nine). The win also tied a program record for wins in a single season for Sac State. The Hornets also won nine games in 1994, 1998 and 2000.

The Hornets go on the road to face Northern Arizona (5-8-1, 1-3-1) on Sunday at 1 p.m.